The Crane Museum of Papermaking is located in what was the rag room of Crane's Old Stone Mill, dating back to 1844. This was the first mill built by the second generation of Crane papermakers in Dalton, Mass.— Zenas Marshall and James Brewer Crane, following the retirement of the pioneer papermaker Zenas Crane.

The Museum opened in 1930 after an extensive renovation, making it one of the oldest corporate museums in the country. The grounds were designed by the F.L and J.C Olmsted firm. Exhibits in the Museum trace the 250-year history of Crane papermaking from The Liberty Paper Mill in Milton, Mass., which operated from 1770 to 1793, to the present. The Liberty Mill was indeed a cradle of the American Revolution, serving such revolutionary luminaries as Paul Revere, Henry Knox, John Hancock and a host of others responsible for today's freedom.